February 28, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The NCUA Board recently issued an ANPR regarding mergers, conversions from credit union charter, and account insurance termination that provided a 60-day comment period, 73 FR 5461 (Jan. 30, 2008). NCUA received several oral requests to extend the comment period and has decided to extend the comment period for an additional 30 days.

The FAA proposes to amend requirements concerning the registration of aircraft. This proposal is based on the need to increase and maintain the accuracy of aircraft registration information in the Civil Aviation Registry. The proposed procedures would ensure aircraft owners periodically provide information regarding changes in registration. These amendments would respond to the concerns of law enforcement and other government agencies and would provide more accurate, up-to-date aircraft registration information to all users of the Civil Aviation Registry database.

This rule increases the number of end-uses for which certain ``tools of trade'' may be exported temporarily to Sudan under a license exception. It also makes more types of commodities eligible under the category ``tools of trade'' for purposes of this license exception and authorizes reexports under this provision to the same extent as exports are authorized.

We are considering ways to quickly identify diseases and other serious medical conditions that obviously meet the definition of disability under the Social Security Act (the Act) and can be identified with minimal objective medical information. We are calling this method ``Compassionate Allowances.'' We held one public hearing already and plan to hold additional public hearings this year. This is the second hearing in the series. The purpose of this hearing is to obtain your views about the advisability and possible methods of identifying and implementing compassionate allowances for children and adults with cancers. Our first hearing, on December 4-5, 2007, dealt with rare diseases. We will address other kinds of medical conditions in later hearings.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance relating to foreign base company sales income, as defined in section 954(d), in cases in which personal property sold by a controlled foreign corporation (CFC) is manufactured, produced, or constructed pursuant to a contract manufacturing arrangement or by one or more branches of the CFC. These regulations, in general, will affect CFCs and their United States shareholders. Certain portions of these proposed regulations restate changes to Sec. 1.954-3(a)(4) that were contained in former proposed regulations.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Boeing Model 737-300, -400, and -500 series airplanes. This AD requires repetitive inspections for cracking of the body buttock line (BBL) 0.07 floor beam between body station (BS) 651 and BS 676 and between BS 698 and BS 717, and related investigative and corrective actions if necessary. This AD also provides an optional terminating action for the repetitive inspections. This AD results from reports of cracking in the BBL 0.07 floor beam. We are issuing this AD to prevent failure of the main deck floor beams at certain body stations due to fatigue cracking, which could result in rapid decompression of the airplane.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Maryland. The revisions update the SIP's reference to the EPA definition of ``Volatile organic compounds (VOC).'' In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the State's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD), which applies to certain Boeing Model 767-200, -300, and -300F series airplanes. That AD currently requires reworking the surface of the ground stud bracket of the left and right transformer rectifier units (TRUs) and the airplane structure mounting surface, and measuring the resistance from the bracket to the structure and the ground lugs to the bracket using a bonding meter. This new AD revises the applicability of the existing AD to include additional airplanes and requires, among other actions, installation of a new ground stud bracket using faying surface bonding. This AD results from a report of loss of all direct current (DC) power generation during a flight, due to inadequate electrical ground path between the ground bracket of the TRUs/main battery charger (MBC) and the structure. We are issuing this AD to prevent depletion of the main battery while in flight, resulting from the loss of both TRUs and the MBC, and consequent loss of all DC power, which could impact the safe flight and landing of the airplane due to the loss of function or malfunction of essential/critical systems and displays in the cockpit.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) have agreed to issue an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to incorporate increased thresholds for application of the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and the Free Trade Agreements, as determined by the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Commonwealth of Virginia State Implementation Plan (SIP). The revisions pertain to administrative amendments to the Commonwealth regulation governing source-specific nitrogen oxides (NOX) reasonable available control technology (RACT). EPA is approving these revisions to the Commonwealth of Virginia SIP in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to update and clarify policy for synopses of proposed contract actions and to delete all references to Numbered Notes (hereafter referred to as ``Notes'').

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement revisions to the regulations related to the administration of the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS).

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in order to address the issues of contractor personnel that are providing support to the mission of the United States Government in a designated operational area or supporting a diplomatic or consular mission outside the United States, but are not authorized to accompany the U.S. Armed Forces.

In this document, the Commission modifies the leased access rate formula; adopts customer service obligations that require minimal standards and equal treatment of leased access programmers with other programmers; eliminates the requirement for an independent accountant to review leased access rates; requires annual reporting of leased access statistics; adopts expedited time frames for resolution of complaints and modifies the discovery process.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to revise designated critical habitat for the contiguous United States distinct population segment of the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) (lynx) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). In the contiguous United States, the lynx generally inhabits cold, moist boreal forests. Approximately 42,753 square miles (mi\2\) (110,727 square kilometers (km\2\)) fall within the boundaries of the proposed revised critical habitat designation. The proposed revised designation would add an additional 40,913 mi\2\ (105,959 km\2\) to the existing critical habitat designation of 1,841 mi\2\ (4,768 km\2\). The proposed revised critical habitat is located in Boundary County, Idaho; Aroostook, Franklin, Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Somerset Counties in Maine; Cook, Koochiching, Lake, and St. Louis Counties in Minnesota; Flathead, Glacier, Granite, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Lincoln, Missoula, Pondera, Powell, Teton, Gallatin, Park, Sweetgrass, Stillwater, and Carbon Counties in Montana; Chelan and Okanogan Counties in Washington; and Park, Teton, Fremont, Sublette, and Lincoln Counties in Wyoming.